Over the years, fire trucks have evolved from simple vehicles for transporting hoses, pumps, and hooks and ladders to sophisticated command centers for controlling all aspects of the firefighting operation, from communications to nozzle pressure regulation. The increased capability of these vehicles is to a large part due to advances in the electronics industry, which have enabled complex and cumbersome mechanical controls to be replaced with more streamlined electronic devices. The conversion from mechanical to electronic controls has been rather haphazard, however, with each electronic device developed independently of the others, each having its own separate set of wires. Because no attempt has been made to integrate the various electronic devices into a single unit, the wiring within a typical fire truck has come to resemble a maze consisting of hundreds of wires. The huge number of wires becomes a problem when an electrical malfunction occurs, forcing a technician to test each of the lines individually in order to diagnose, monitor, and repair the problem.
Accordingly, the object of this invention is to provide a multiplexing system for integrating the electronic controls of a fire truck or similar vehicle in order to reduce sensor duplication, increase flexibility, simplify the wiring and facilitate diagnosis of electronic problems.